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Before I talk about that bit I’ll just thank all those who I met at the pub on Tuesday, old and new faces. Was pretty humbling to see youse all (y’all) come out and keeping a sober Scotsman company and turning him into a drunken Scotsman. Cheers.

So yeah, it turns out applying for a Visa is horrible. You wait over 4 hours in a room where music and outside contact is banned and then have to visit a teller window without a seat to talk to an American. It was pretty rough and my own fault for not taking a book (even when I had one to take with me). It was pretty hosptible when talking to the tellers though, they genuinely seemed quite in tune to the fact that my patience had been shredded to buggery and I was never more glad to be out in the pissing rain in my life. And to top it off I had a Wagamama so freedom tasted incredible.

It was approved and I am now just waiting for my US entry valid visa. Anyone applied for a visa similarly? I guess I wonder about bands – do they have to apply for one? Is it easier for an artist?

it sounded pretty harsh, she'd been told that there were certain things that she was allowed to bring, she got there to find that what she'd been sent was out of date which also meant that the fee had gone up considerably too. It sounds to me, like you say, just a long test of patience and endurance.

and I suppose it could've been, but I doubt it because she's not very ditsy but normally really organised. She needed to have well documented evidence of their relationship, which sounds like a total passion killer.

same thing as you, waiting ages in a drab room, trying to look as normal as possible before going up to the window and doing the fingerprints thing. all was going fine until they saw that i was born in beirut. i believe the teller's exact words were "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm beirut". i had to wait two months more than everyone else does before they issued me with a visa as they were checking out my entire life history.

before flying out to Canada and then travelling overland on the greyhound.

The cunts at the border didn't have a clue and made us fill out another form and pay a tenner each. Cunts. And they got all fidgety when we said we didn't have the phone number for our hotels to hand. "How did you or will you call them?" They asked. "Errrr, we booked online, and we know where the hotels are, so why would we need to call them? And if we did, we'd just look 'em up in the internet". I seem to remember that they also acted kinda weird when they saw my phone (a Nokia E71 - looks kinda like a Blackberry but isn't... RED ALERT!). Cunts.

which is really rather hard to do. you gotta have some super special skills, get married to an american, or get transferred by a company you work for.

don't need a visa to go there as a tourist or on business for less than 90 days. you have to fill out a little thing online with some details and then you just rock up onto the plane and then answer a few question in immigration.

The two times I've been there my plane was one of the last to land. This meant 2 hours in a queue in immigration while various idiots who hadn't filled in their Visa Waiver form got sent back.

Eventually you get there, they take your details, fingerprints, photo, and have a bit of a chat so you have to try to civil while thinking, "FUCKING HELL, LET ME GO TO MY HOTEL! FUCSAKE! FUCK!" because if you said that they'd just chuck straight back on a plane home and you don't want to be suspicious.

The Visa Waiver's great but if they get suspicious you may be in for a long stay. Someone I know went out there to meet people at the US office. He was going to be taking a job there six months down the line but this was just a preliminary non-work visit. However, the customs guys didn't like the sound of him visiting work and went through his laptop and papers, discovering an email saying he'd be working there in the future and deciding he must be there to work illegally. He got sent straight home.

visiting my fiancee. on the visa waiver program. the last time i tried to enter this mega-bitch border patrol woman just treated me like a terrorist and told me to go sit in this room which was full of mexicans.

eventually i spoke to a slightly nicer man who begrudgingly gave me entry.

i wanna return before christmas and stay for 6 months, but it's tricky because the VWP only lets you stay for 3 months, and to be honest i don't think they're gonna let me in again. the rules on the VWP are you can come as much as you want and there's no limit per year, but if the border guard suspects anything they can send you home and ban you from the US for 10 years. and of course, border patrol guards are mostly assholes.

so i'm looking into a b1/b2 visa...i don't have much money, i'd mainly be living off my girlfriend for a bit. but it looks like that'd be my best option...i think.